


Hymn Him Sun

by sun_incarnate



Series: The Divine, Once Again [5]
Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Changmin as Hestia, Hyunjun as Artemis, Kevin as Apollo, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mature tag for drinking and injuries, Mentions of blood and wounds, Minor Injuries, Not Canon Compliant, Panic Attack, Younghoon as Hera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:27:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26600656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sun_incarnate/pseuds/sun_incarnate
Summary: When Kevin hums in slight inattention, Changmin wonders if he's too used to turpentine to not be bothered by the sharp scent he breathes in."Do you ever wonder why Artemis is still missing?"
Relationships: Ji Changmin | Q/Moon Hyungseo | Kevin
Series: The Divine, Once Again [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783480
Comments: 11
Kudos: 38





	1. ένα

**Author's Note:**

> !! hi again !!! this took me a bit longer to write bc i started college and the whole online classes thing isnt doing wonders for my overall well-being but hey !! please enjoy this (read the next parts of this note carefully)
> 
> **Do not copy, paste as your own, or take credit for my works. I give proper credit when they're due.**  
> 
> 
> **TRIGGER AND CONTENT WARNINGS:**  
>  — The mentions of blood tag is consequent of wounds although the incident that caused them isn't descriptive.  
> — I will be putting this * before and after the scene with the panic attack. It's a very short scene and is a single happening of such incident but it is descriptive, so please take no chances and skip over it if it bothers/makes you uncomfortable/causes you to remember past experiences or have one.  
> — I did not put this in the tags but there are clear thoughts of Intentional Murder by the characters, though no actual death will happen.  
> — There is a scene where a character consciously speaks with "voices in his mind" but this is not a play to schizophrenia. I do not and will never downplay mental health issues or disorders.
> 
> — I will be updating the content warnings for the next chapter too so please read them carefully.
> 
> — No part of this, especially the thought processes, are reflective if the idols themselves.
> 
> **HESTIA** – the goddess of the hearth, or rather the fire burning on the hearth, and the home. Hestia was also the goddess of the sacrificial flame and received a share of every sacrifice to the gods.  
> (I took some liberties with how Hestia's divinity shows and the extent of her power so as to fit the plan I had in mind.)  
>  **APOLLO** – was the Olympian god of prophecy and oracles, music, song and poetry, archery, healing, plague and disease, and the protection of the young. He was depicted with attributes such as a wreath and branch of laurel, bow and quiver of arrows, raven, and lyre.  
> Relationship: The gods Apollo and Poseidon sought for her hand in marriage, Hestia refused and asked Zeus to let her remain an eternal virgin. He agreed and she took her place at his royal hearth.  
> — [Source.](https://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/olympian-gods.html)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Kevin hums in slight inattention, Changmin wonders if he's too used to turpentine to not be bothered by the sharp scent he breathes in.
> 
> "Do you ever wonder why Artemis is still missing?"

The setter of their university's team, Changmin notices, is nothing short of being overwhelmingly confident. 

It's in the way he tosses, discipline-sharp and making the ball whizz through the air, its destination set exactly onto the palms of spikers who are able to fly because he'd made them chase the ball. Changmin sees the surety of his actions, unhesitating as he pushes on to strive for triumph, and it shows through every aspect of his gameplay.

And because of him, they're actually on the brink of victory. 

Changmin stays silent as he observes all of this, preferring to have most of his senses set on guard. Kevin's with him, and even through the glamour that they've sewn even into their very clothes, the presence of two Olympians is bound to attract unwanted attention from those who've waited a long time for the gods to fall.

He struggles to stay guarded, though, everything around him stimulating so much so it swamps all of his senses. It's to the extent that he even sometimes forgets Kevin's with him.

He faults it to the millennia he's spent tending to the hearth of Olympus, never once leaving his post as guardian of its coals.

He's used to the quiet of the marble halls, ears adjusted to hear the littlest of noises bouncing from the grand walls, so the screaming that surrounds him in his seat is enough to make his ears ring. It makes him rub circles against his chest, trying to ease the tightening discomfort he feels threatening to surface.

Sight back to the court, Changmin keeps eyeing the setter, finding his presence familiar even as he's no reason to actually be paying attention.

Something about him— _Hur_ , the back of his jersey shows lettered in white—is so inexplicably captivating, like he knows he rules the court. But not like what aura a king would give off, no; instead it's much like he's aware of every single thing this arena holds, which in turn grants him a firm grasp of his surroundings.

That confidence is what Changmin senses, a trait that's allowed by what looks to be his astounding awareness. Even quite a distance from the court, above it as his seat is meters off the floor, Changmin feels like he's being catalogued. Like his presence too is marked by the setter.

Changmin doesn't like the feeling of being owned or being watched too closely to the point that it resembles ownership, even as he's sure that he must have just imagined it, not being used to the mere notion as he knows that he's nothing like these mortals.

But the way the setter looks at his opponents—now, Hur points to someone on the court opposite of him, face blank only if Changmin completely disregards the hunger in his eyes—is so _dominating_.

The opponent he's pointed a finger at, one whose jersey is a color contrasting that of his teammates', jumps as if shaken by the mere gesture. Changmin, against his own will, catches himself wishing that he'd never have the chance to be put under such intense savagery. 

The ball is tossed up in the air again, and their team makes it fly through the air, Hur moving across the polished floor with remarkable grace.

Changmin finds himself confused, trying to keep track of every player on their team, so when someone jumps up just short of the net, he didn't notice that there's the ball already moments away from being spiked.

It veers in the direction of that different-jerseyed opponent, and lands just in front of him with impact so strong Changmin hears the sound of it clear from his seat. It makes the opponent fall back, and it takes him a few moments to stand up, his teammates looking over in concern. 

And Hur turns his back, the _03_ that marks his jersey flashing. It makes Changmin breathe deeper, feeling the need to calm himself before turning to speak to Kevin, who's stayed silent beside him this whole time.

But just so, as Kevin too is looking like he needs to pour all of his concentration into whatever it was that he's set out to do. The quiet anger Changmin sees on the other's face is enough to remind him of the actual reason as to why they've decided to show up. 

It's not because of college spirit, or in support of their team, no. They're both out here baring their presence to all because Kevin is hunting a thief.

It was a few days ago when it happened, Kevin showing up to their shared flat looking all frantic.

A contrast to his usual levelheadedness, he'd then proceeded to upturn everything in sight; throw pillows, chairs, bookcases, even the decorative vases by the door.

Changmin had been sitting idle on the couch, watching the scene with mild interest. It's amused him, the change in the other's behavior; Changmin thought it the right time for Kevin to finally be not so serious, to let go. Though it had bothered him that this is how Kevin acts when loosening up, he voiced no complaints and merely sat back.

But then Kevin stood in the middle of the living room as if to take a breather, and in the sudden quiet of the scene Changmin let his eyes adjust to the then faintly-glowing skin of the other.

He followed the golden shine, which started from Kevin's sunflare eyes and travelling downwards. Changmin's distracted by the glow that had been an effect of the anger he now realises is showing slow, and he was just about to ask what had happened when his gaze caught on Kevin's bare wrist.

Kevin's supposedly _not_ bare wrist.

"Kev," he'd started cautious, not wanting literal sunbursts to be directed at him. Changmin's used to heat, having faced heavenly coals for continuous millennia, but he has no desire to be put under the sun's wrath. "What happened?"

When Kevin turned to him, it's almost as if he'd just then realised his presence, if the widened eyes were any indication of it.

The flares dimmed a little, but as he processed Changmin's question the glow returned in a flash. 

"I don't know when, or how," he'd clutched his bare wrist, and to Changmin the sun god looked suddenly cold, "but the bracelet's gone." 

They stayed like that for a moment, Changmin still seated and Kevin looking like he's lost everything.

And Changmin knows, of course he knows; that bracelet had been the only thing Kevin had allowed himself to take as reminder of his missing twin. 

The moon that centers as its charm had been a reminder of Artemis, memories of her growing more painful by every night Kevin spends trying to guide the actual moon across night skies in her absence.

Unable then to enlist the help of his oracles so that they may locate it quicker, Kevin had decided to scour the university grounds first, convinced that the clasp must've just come loose so he'd dropped it, or that he'd been careless enough that it had caught on the shrubs of the garden where he spends his time sketching.

Changmin knows of its futility, however, which is why he'd recommended that they let Kevin's ravens do the search, reminding him that they'd cover more area faster than what they both could do on foot.

Given that they've both been reborn in near-powerless states, both of them could do nothing short of appearing to places sacred to them gods. So that left the ascension to Olympus, descending to the Underworld, or to their most sacred temples. Everywhere else they must reach by foot or what vehicles mortals have come up with, an incapacity most felt when now they need to move with urgency.

Changmin's just remembering his call for assistance from Persephone and Hades themselves, recalling his visit to the Underworld and the warmth he's graced their palace with, when he feels Kevin tense beside him, hands clenched tight atop the pillows of his thighs courtesy of their seats. His attention is brought back to the game on the court below them.

"It's him, Changmin-ah."

He looks to the direction of the court, musings forgotten as he tries to look for whoever it was that Kevin's acknowledged.

He spies a member of their university's team being subbed out, someone with bouncy blond hair making his way to replace him.

He goes to the end of their side and tosses up a ball to serve, and Changmin holds his breath at the force he uses against the ball. It lands uninterrupted on the other side, Changmin hearing _That's a service ace, right?_ from behind him the same time the stadium comes alive with loud cheers of _Son Youngjae._

He looks to Kevin, who's taken to holding his wrist again. "The blond guy? Are you sure?" 

To which he's nodded at, the sharp features of Kevin's face hardening even as he lets go of his jaw's clench. "I remember his face. He was the only one who got too close to me that day, and I remember seeing him following me around.

He must have thought he was being discreet about it, and it's my fault for disregarding that, when I literally saw his face before I closed my eyes for a nap." 

_And he'd gotten the bracelet from you that easy? Without even rousing you from your "nap"?_ Changmin wanted to say. It's no news that them gods are at times too assured of their own divinity, proud and stubborn and used to having the world work for them.

Kevin, though not as prideful as the others had been, must have forgotten that he isn't the same god as he was before. 

Changmin wants to reprimand him, say he's partially at fault for being too self-assured and relaxed when he knows that with Olympus being closed off they don't have much of their former powers. Millennia of godhood had ridded them gods of fear, had made them too lax so that even now when they've literally got next to nothing, they still don't know how to behave cautiously. 

And now, partly because of that carelessness, a mortal is going to be punished. 

Just as it should be, of course, no matter who you are or how unguarded one might be it's still wrong to steal. Most of all from them, and especially so in Kevin's situation, because that bracelet held a part of the moon, though the thief probably would have thought that it's just a pretty silver jewel. 

Back at the court, somebody else throws up the ball for a serve, and Kevin leans forward with eyes taking on a strangely sadistic glint.

Hands separating, and his fingers move in little motions, taking on a form that looks like he's holding a ball with them. Changmin's breath catches as he realises what Kevin's doing the same time the ball's being served at the court. 

He waits stilled, never daring to disrupt the focus he knows Kevin's sharpening beside him.

Skin hits rubber, and Changmin watches the ball sail through the air, aware of its destination as Kevin beside him emits a faint glow, a quiet thrum telltale of the sun's warmth present in the air as he's letting a bit of his divinity flow through to ensure his success.

And it hits true, the loud sound of the impact stunning the whole stadium into a momentary silence.

If there's one trait Changmin should have expected to have remained persisting through all of Kevin's incarnations, the one skill that best shows his true nature as a god, it's that he never misses.

Son Youngjae crumples down, the ball that had hit his head rolling away on the floor.

*****

What loudness that had made Changmin near-overwhelmed earlier is now boosted ten times over, the murmurs of everybody else in the stadium deafening in its sheer volume.

It makes Changmin's vision swim, and he vaguely registers paramedics down on the court rushing somebody out of the place as the edges of his eyesight starts to darken, numbed and feeling so out of place in this chaos that surrounds him.

Something is insistently pounding at his head, and he's still trembling in his seat. Changmin's having trouble breathing, clawing at his shirt as his chest he feels tightening, and he's close to fainting as he desperately tries to deepen his intakes of air.

If he's giving anything away he doesn't know, choosing not to pay heed to what surrounds him as he tries to shed what cage he's built around his body to contain his divinity.

 _Itshould_ work, going back to his truest form as a god; it should rid him of his ails in an instant.

But the chaos in his mind is left free to travel down his body, straight ahead to where he draws his breaths in, and everything in him is constricting.

_What's wrong, why now of all times?_

*****

There's a hand lain flat against his back that urges him up, and if Changmin had been in a clearer state of mind he might've questioned just who it is who dared touch him.

But he prioritizes breathing first before the possibility of being assaulted, _I can't die now, I haven't found all of my family yet_ , walking with heavier steps along the pace of the person that guides him, and then there's the sun shining above that makes him take note of his surroundings.

He's outside, the main entrance to the stadium he knows they've left by the way the sun beats down on him.

There's gentle warmth pressed against his back, and he draws strength from it. The tightening of his chest starts to ebb away at the clearing sight of open space, throat loosening to take in more air.

Changmin puts his hands against his knees, posture bending as he struggles against the last knots of his breathlessness.

"Changmin-ah, look at me," someone calls soft in front of him, and through the muddle of his mind it takes a few moments for him to recognize the voice, "Come on, breathe. Gently now, with me, just like how I'm doing. Can you hear me?" 

_Breathe_ , a voice whispers in his mind, and he finally puts a face to the familiar timbre of it. His legs quiver at the lack of strength, and if he hadn't been bent over Changmin thinks he might've already fallen to the ground. 

The hand on his back is still there, and amongst all the other things he's the lord of Changmin forgot that Kevin is also the god of healing.

"I'm fine," he gasps through mouthfuls of air, "fine. Now."

There's still something racking against the walls of his chest but he can feel it starting to dissolve, him now choosing to push through the panic that had surrounded him inside the stadium. 

So when he can finally stand up straighter, albeit a little shakier as he's still regaining his strength back, Changmin lets out a weak smile towards Kevin in gratitude.

It is mirrored back at him, and as they make their way back home Changmin does not see the gloom shadowing everything else, fails to notice that the sun's shining down only on them.

Changmin met Kevin when he's just enrolled himself to one of Seoul's universities, choosing to be clad in yellow suits in way of uniform instead of studying in normal colleges on the city's outskirts. Hera had allowed him to do so, despite whatever dangers a bustling mortal city may ever pose for them. 

_It's all in the name of my duty, anyway_ , is what he tells himself. And it is, it is, because Changmin's taken it up to himself to gather his family back together. 

It isn't entirely left in his power, but he _is_ the protector of families and the hearth, and this new age that has chanced them a rebirth reminds him of all the things he wishes he could have done long ago.

He's reminded of the loneliness creeping along the walls of Olympus' palace, the emptiness she hears as the rest of the Olympians she knows are down the mountain. 

Hestia's never wished that she could be given any other duty than to tend to the hearth, or that she stops being the goddess presiding over every sacrificial flame that swallows mortal offers to the gods.

She'd never longed for that, but sometimes the marble floor turns too cold and there's nobody to share her warmth with. 

But Kevin had been warmer than even him.

At first, Changmin paid him no mind.

He'd caught Kevin staring at him from across the garden, looking so at peace playing with an iPad under the glare of the summer sun. Nobody's with him, no other people in plain sight that Changmin could see.

He'd been on his way to class, taking the garden path as a shortcut. The oppressing heat is enough to drive people indoors, and Changmin's only unaffected by it for the fact that he's faced hotter coals than this. 

When he stayed rooted to his spot and had returned the intensity of Kevin's staring, the sun beat down on Changmin even more. Kevin got up from where he's seated on one of the garden's benches and stalked towards him, the curls of his dark hair staying black even under the day's light.

Changmin's given the chance to briefly wonder where the iPad had disappeared to before Kevin's reached him, and when nearer he'd realised that the other's standing at the same height as him but even then giving off the aura of someone much _more_. 

Kevin's looking at him, interest showing through his eyes but Changmin opted to think he's just imagined the gold that flecked the browns. _It can't be this easy, finding them._

But he was proven wrong when Kevin reached out to hold his wrist.

There had been heat tickling along his skin, and Changmin's realised that for him to feel that then it must've have been too hot.

Millennia of facing the hearth has made him almost numb to heat, so feeling this means it's too much for mortals to bear. Looking up from where he's started to let his gaze linger down, he's surprised to see Kevin still looking at him.

Head tilted to the side, Changmin can't find it in himself to continue denying what looks to be the truth. 

Kevin's eyes are golden. 

"Who are you?" he'd demanded from Changmin then, voice quiet even through the power that makes it carry heavy through the air. 

_He's one of us_ , Changmin thought, as for every passing second of his silence the warmth against his skin goes even warmer.

_I found one of us._

"I'm Changmin," he replied, though never knew what compelled him to say so. It's not like he wasn't aware of what was being asked of him, but if he is who Changmin thought he must be, then starting out with this current incarnate's name is the best course of action.

He nodded before letting go of Changmin, wincing in way of apology before he gritted out a "I'm Kevin." as introduction. 

The skin of Changmin's wrist was reddened, blisters already showing. Though Kevin reached out again, his hand then cool contrasting its heat moments prior.

He didn't give anything away, not with words nor any other sign. His eyes though, stayed golden the whole time it took for the red to fade away from Changmin's skin, and as he's stood there trying to figure out who Kevin is he's struck by the memory of being courted by one of his fellow gods.

He's reminded then of his refusal, of asking Zeus that he be allowed to stay untouched and unmarried. As per decree of the gods' king, Hestia wasn't chased after, hadn't been touched without her permission, and wasn't endlessly bugged for attention ever again. 

Though he's stood there, thinking to himself _It's Apollo_. Eyebrows knit with focus and palms a cool salve to his skin, Kevin bent down to blow air against the infliction. 

It was an instant's act, being remedied. God of healing, Apollo had always been generous with this side of him, never thinking twice of granting remedies.

Though he only has ever done it for those who's never wronged him, the sentiment still stands. The red faded away to reveal a spattering of marks on Changmin's skin. _Sun kisses._

He thought again of being married then, when he's realised that the sun isn't always about the heat.

The present, however, sees Changmin sweating through his clothes.

No matter the fabric, or the lightness of the clothes he wears, it always ends up the same; him taking yet another bath, laundry basket piled up high and the number of his clean shirts steadily dwindling.

It's Kevin's fault, because of course it is. 

Ever since that day when he'd guided the ball to kill Son Youngjae, he'd been impatient at the thought of the bracelet going back to him.

And it should have, even Changmin had expected it to be so, but it's been almost a week and they're still yet to see a sign of its reappearance around Kevin's wrist.

"Don't you think it got caught up somewhere along its way here, Kevin-ah?" Changmin asks, fed up with the heat in their apartment but never voicing out direct complaints anyway. 

"If it had, I would have known of it."

Kevin's at the living room, where most of the sunlight's passing through the wall of glass he'd customized the apartment with. Changmin's on the couch, on the brink of tearing his eyes out at the cruel heat of the room.

Kevin's put up an easel and is dipping brushes in turpentine, forgoing the convenience of his iPad. The sharp scent, coupled with the mind-fogging heat, is almost enough to drive Chagmin insane.

"No, I mean." He pauses, regretting that he's started this conversation but continuing if only for the knowledge that Kevin needs to let out thoughts about this. "I mean, maybe it got, I don't know, got caught by another god?"

Kevin stills at that, wrist limp and fingers clenched around a brush. Changmin knows he shouldn't have insinuated such thing, of other gods stealing from him.

It's bad enough that to this day they number few, and throwing out accusations had never once ended well for them.

So he comes up with words fast, putting up hands as attempt in placating the temper he feels rising from Kevin. "I'm not saying others stole it. I mean, maybe they saw it somewhere? And chose to hold on to it?" 

The brush gets dipped in violet. Kevin splatters the paint on the canvas, savage in his strokes, but when he speaks again his voice is a soft daybreak. "Then I'll let them be. See if they can manage guiding the moon."

Changmin stops at that, sensing the way Kevin had chosen his words with care.

While it's true that Kevin is charged to rule the sun and its path as Apollo's incarnate, Artemis being missing does not mean that the moon should be left to him too. Being her twin does not give him that immediate right.

In her absence, one of the minor gods should have been reborn to occupy her post for a while.

Selene had been the former goddess of the moon before it was tasked to Artemis all those ages ago, so she should have been here instead. All it would take is one notice and Kevin would have given her the moon, no matter how much it would have hurt him to truly feel Artemis' absence. It's a decree of the Fates—that one should never take another god's power and influence as one's own—law that even them Olympians would never dare oppose.

So the question now is, why wasn't Selene reborn to take Artemis' place?

He voices no sign of exhaustion even as he's manifesting his godly form daybreak to moonset, but Kevin ought to feel the tax on his divinity. Maintaining such display of power _all day_ has effects, and this incarnate is not yet capable of handling Apollo's greatest form.

Kevin has never been able to maintain the glow on his skin or the golden flare of his eyes for a long time, and by that Changmin knows that Kevin's body is simply not enough to be just yet.

Kevin comes home before dawn, sleeps for an hour, and rises with the sun. He isn't allowed to sleep for long periods of time, always keeping watch of the sun _and_ the moon on different parts of the world, and in his sleep his hands are always clenched fists.

Even in the few hours he has for rest and dreams he's still reining both chariots across the skies.

Changmin tells him, _"Kev, spare this body, please. You can manifest forms in your dreams, please, I know how much this is taking from you."_

But Kevin will only look at him, something like resolve in his eyes, and he will always always reach out to thumb the freckles on Changmin's wrist. " _Min-ah, if you're this aware of just how much this is taking from me, then you already know that I could never dare to even think of stopping."_

So Changmin stopped reminding him, and chose to only stay by his side even as the glare of his eyes is offset by the dark circles that ring them.

This pressure, and the fact that he's shouldering two heavenly responsibilities, was what must have made Kevin snap enough to kill a mortal with no fair trial. The dilemma eats away at his mind, and Changmin tries to understand it when Kevin shuts him out to take his frustrations out on art.

And Changmin is much too aware of Kevin's nature, the ruthlessness of him waiting idle when he's choosing to focus on other things.

When he looks back at it, he supposes he should have at least expected Kevin to be furious enough as to fatally injure the thief. However much the world may have progressed, he knows that deep down them gods would never let go of the old ways. 

"Kevin-ah," he calls from his seat. In the short time that they've been together, Changmin had learned much about this incarnation of Apollo. With what amount of time he'd spent being alone at Olympus, he'd unknowingly dedicated himself to learning about every single thing that's different in his surroundings;

And as such, when he'd been reborn down from the heavens and lived with Kevin, he'd become much aware of everything about the other.

Though he wants to hear the answer coming from Kevin himself, not allowing himself to succumb to his assumptions.

Sometimes it's better that he lets himself be wrong if only to feel the satisfaction that whatever negative judgement he'd have thought of is being corrected.

When Kevin hums in slight inattention, Changmin wonders if he's too used to turpentine to not be bothered by the sharp scent he breathes in.

"Do you ever wonder why Artemis is still missing?"

That seems to finally catch his attention, and the brush he's holding is dipped in a cup before it's left untouched. Kevin's still facing the canvas, but in the tense line of his shoulders Changmin grows nervous. The patch of freckles on his wrist, from when Kevin's touched him before with the literal sun's heat, itches in his anticipation.

"You think she should have been reborn the same time and at the same place as I had been?" 

Kevin faces him, and Changmin knows by his eyes that he's tired of everything. 

"Min-ah, when we were always together the last lifetime, the Fates made sure to keep us separated."

He doesn't understand why. Must have been evident on his face, for Kevin suppresses a comforting smile.

"And why should they, when without her you're hurting so? Were you doing anything taboo, anything objectively blasphemous?'

"We could never be constantly at the same place, at the same time then," Kevin breathes deep, and the strength of his shoulders crumbles.

He slouches in his seat but Changmin refuses to give in, so he stays seated even when all he wants to do is to reach out and hold the other. "We could never be. What good could it have done? What if we were found by giants together, or Fates forbid, reborn titans? What then?"

Kevin's eyes are colored a dead brown.

"You'd be slain together," Changmin realises the facts lain out before him, "and Olympus would lose hold over the sun and the moon.

There would never be light upon the world again."

Kevin smiles bitterly and turns to pick up his brush. Changmin takes this as a cue to the silent plea, that _Please, I need a few moments to myself._

_Please, before I do anything I would regret._

So he takes his keys and scarf, aware that outside the flat it'd be much colder especially with the night that approaches. 

"Leaving?"

"Have to continue the search, and I'm burning up here, you broken thermostat. Be back whenever."

Changmin's turning the doorknob when he's called to face back by the weight of stares on his back. "Get enough dreams, Kev." 

The smile he lets show is a little brighter this time. Changmin beams back at the meager victory. 

"Be safe, Changmin-ah. I'd hate to lose you too."

He faces Changmin again, and the sun is bright against his canvas. I'd hate to lose you too. Changmin is allowed a glimpse at the art, and is never really surprised even when he thinks he should at least be a bit. 

Kevin's brush strokes are strong, and they've formed a cluster of violet hyacinths.

"Will bring back some gods for you, then." And Changmin closes the door.

Times like this is when he thinks back to Apollo courting him back then.

Would it have been so bad a marriage when Changmin as Hestia had never really been bothered by the heat? Would they have made a bad pair when she's delighted in her position as tender of the hearth, when she's found the warmth comforting?

Wandering Seoul's streets is one of his favorite pastimes, now that he's found it in himself to appreciate it even in his haste for the search. But being plagued by thoughts of marriages and a chance long past its due is making the time less enjoyable.

Changmin thinks back and uses access to his oldest memories. Who is Apollo, anyway? A young upstart of a god who's never even bothered properly wooing him, that's who.

 _But he's also a great god,_ the voices remind him _. The arrow-hail of Death, and yet at the same time the one that could halt it with only a whisper by way of cure._

_Music, Art, Poetry and Hymns, the Lord of the Muses, Overseer of Prophecies, Slayer of Python, Son of Zeus._

_God of the sun._

"One day without your intrusiveness, really. Is that too much to ask?"

_You two would have made a great pair. Heat and Heat. Tell me, Changmin, weren't you tired of Zeus' thunderstorms around Olympus?_

Changmin knows he probably would have looked mad to the people he passes by if his constant mutterings are heard. 

Being an incarnate of a millennia-old goddess means he's subject to all the personas she's taken on through the ages—personalities Hestia's kept so as to keep watch over parts of the world simultaneously—and if the heat from Kevin earlier hadn't been enough then he thinks he'd burn up with all the voices speaking in his mind.

_You said you were tired of falling asleep to thunders and the whips of lightning. Don't you think it's time for actual lullabies to help you sleep?_

Ignoring any more of such thoughts, he spends hours like this, passing through main avenues and downtown streets occupied so that he doesn't even realise the moonrise.

The glow of streetlights are evident now that Changmin's noticed them, looking up in hopes to track the sun but is met with stars instead. The thoughts continue in his mind but he tries his best to shut them up, turning a sharp left at a crossroads. 

There's a faint tint to the air, more hum in his blood than visual reminder, and he recognizes the trail he's followed weeks ago.

Which means he's unknowingly been following the trails of Athena, and that if he continues down this street then the current abode of Underworld's ruling crowns will loom before him. 

Should he ask for their assistance again, a little help from Hades and Persephone, just this once more?

"No," Changmin mutters faster to not have his thoughts speak against him again, "You took this burden on your own, so might as well avoid all excess help if it comes down to it."

 _Besides_ , leaving the vicinity, Changmin strides through blocks of subdivisions and apartment complexes, continuing his search only to chance on a brightly lit establishment some blocks over, _Juyeon and Chanhee's got an entire kingdom to worry over._

He enters it, intrigued at the _something_ that oozes off of the lights, curious so that he doesn't even look above to check what the establishment is.

Maybe it's a bar, or a club, judging by the frenzy of colors from the lights; but there are no guards posted by the entrance, nor is there someone to check for IDs as Changmin is pretty sure he looks a bit younger than the college-appropriate age he's put on his ID. 

When he's completely inside, he's pushed by bodies hurrying towards the dancefloor.

The air's warm, and he thinks of undoing the loops of his scarf. Changmin heads to the bar, hoping to get some quiet as he sorts out his thoughts over a drink. 

Taking a seat, somebody approaches him from across the counter immediately. The bartender's only a couple decades old, if the youthful joy on his face is anything to go by. The lines of his grin, however, shows more of intoxication than innocence. Changmin would have called that look crazed if he hadn't stopped and caught himself being so horribly judgemental.

The music of the rave behind him lessens by way of basslines, and the bartender purses his lips. 

Instantaneous is the increase in the crowd's enthusiasm, the shouts bordering screams of laughter so much so Changmin feels madness spiking in the low haze of the air.

Madness. He looks up to the bartender preparing his drink. _Madness?_

 _Dionysus_ , the pin on his shirt says, smiles gentle. He's fixing something golden, viscous as it's poured into the glass. 

Wine—no. _Nectar_.

If Changmin hadn't realised that it's a divine revel happening inside the club then he might have believed the innocence of that smile.

He finishes and sets the drink in front of Changmin, walking away to be in front of a man just a couple of seats away from Changmin, and he startles so bad at the sight of grey eyes he wobbles in his seat.

But they're gone in a flash, and as Changmin continues to look on Dionysus conjures a full chess set emerging from the marble countertop.

Changmin does not know if he's hidden himself well enough to not be noticed by two potential Olympian incarnates—when Dionysus proves to be as manic as to give godly nectar away to unassuming customers such as Changmin—so he takes careful sips of his drink just to have an excuse to stay. 

_Might as well wait. I_ did _say I'd bring back some gods._

It must be well past midnight now, maybe approaching dawn again, and he thinks of Kevin's body slumped atop wherever sleep has claimed him.

A sip of his drink, a little something undercurrent of the sweet. Changmin thinks of Kevin's fists, of the veins showing through his skin that glow both silver and gold as he endlessly uses up his divinity to maintain the sun and the moon in their respective positions in the skies.

There's that tang against his tongue when he takes another sip. Changmin looks to the drink but even when mixed with other liquids the nectar stays a pure undiluted gold. Dionysus has spiked the nectar with whiskey. Huh.

Still. It shouldn't burn this much but there's something else that travels hot down Changmin's throat. 

"You alone here, sweetheart?" Somebody slides in the seat beside his. Not Kevin, Changmin thinks.

And that makes him stop. _Of course it isn't him, he's back home_ —His thoughts stop.

What does it say about Changmin that he's only ever allowed Kevin be this close to him unannounced?

"Yes," hoping he doesn't sound drunk enough to be taken advantage of, "and I'd like to _stay_ alone."

Gods are a greater reflection of the people worshipping them, their sins mirroring that of the heavens just equal of their greatness as beings higher than any mortal. So how is it that even through this knowledge Changmin still thinks it's fine if it's Kevin that does the sinning? 

_And that_ , Changmin shakes his head futile, _is the incarnate from The Renaissance. Quiet…unorthodox way of thinking._

From somewhere inside his mind a huff sounds off. The World War incarnate, practical and utilitarian in character. _Since when has this day been about Kevin?_

A hand makes its way onto his thigh. Changmin entertains crazed thoughts of amputation and makes sure the man sees it through his eyes as he fixes him with a glare.

The hand's drawn back in a flash. _As it should be_. The man gets up with a cough and almost scrambles in his haste, probably afraid of the way Changmin's coiled his body with tension. 

Changmin's thirst for anything violent had never been truly woken up due to the reputation he has to uphold, along with the threat of his fires mirroring his every emotion.

He has vowed to never act like any of the other gods. And if left unchecked, the world may very well just burn if Changmin chooses to sink down the pits of his wrath. 

He finally unloops his scarf and drowns the last of his nectar.

Letting his eyes roam around the place, Changmin notices tapestries on the walls, traditional and ancient in theme when compared to the supposed modernity of the club itself. They're all depictions of the ancient times, making Changmin's chest bubble with nostalgia.

Looking for more, his eyes catch on someone by the entrance, though more than the unmistakable beauty he's more intrigued at the dress the person dons.

Through the haze of tipsy stupor Changmin recognizes the lacework, sees the otherworldly skill in the fabric's flow, and connects dots way faster than how he should be given his current state.

 _What was she called again?_ —heading towards where Dionysus and the other person's playing chess, and Changmin finds himself not wanting to interrupt what he knows is going to be a very crucial moment in his search.

He spends time like that, fighting the slow shutting of his eyes in favor of observing the dispute and looking for whose defense cracks first, aware that he's heating up with the amount of nectar he's taken. 

As he looks on, he notices that the glass on his hand is lighter.

Emptied. Changmin recalls it being the third time that he's finished downing its contents already. He doesn't remember ever asking for refills, or anybody else on the other side of the bar filling his glass up again.

While scanning through the people nearest to him, Changmin feels eyes looking at him.

He turns, nape stinging at the sensation, irritated at his dulled senses and swearing to never drink another drop of nectar for this night. 

And just a few seats over, Dionysus isn't looking at the argument happening right in front of his eyes.

He's looking at Changmin, and when their eyes meet the wrath of his sneer turns to a surprised line, though quickly recovering as he seems to recognize Changmin in an instant. 

Dionysus winks at him, and the glass in Changmin's hand turns heavier. Refilled.

_"I remember you insulting me, just like this. Boasting around, too proud, not even thinking that I might be listening."_

The person Dionysus had been playing with is war-mad underneath the gold lights, the red of his hair all pride and ruthlessness. Arachne—Changmin remembers her name now— is shrinking, and the marble countertop of the bar is awash with gold. 

Changmin's hearing turns to static at the sight he's witnessing; A flick of the wrist has gold speckling everywhere, Arachne writhing as she's reduced to her truest form, this gargantuan black widow thrashing against the linoleum floor, Dionysus' skin a map of divinity as the revel all but bursts from the sheer pleasure of madness' patron god. 

Blood flowing from a loosened fist, golden. Ichor. 

Arachne's screaming screeching under the weight of her punishment, at this god's mercy. _Athena_.

Changmin can see it, the moment everything's inching closer to chaos, and in the heat his divinity too is flaring up. Unbeknownst to him is the way he's risen the temperature of the air, conjuring fire where there is none and making an inferno with no visible flames.

It has been so so long, so long since he'd last felt like this, felt so true and freed and god and _divine_. 

_Is this your doing, Dionysus?_ Changmin rounds his seat and stalks off to where they both are. _Is this what your revels offer in exchange of slaved worship?_

The tipsiness dissolves right off his body, nectar no contest to the headiness from the frenzy in his mind. He's aware that his stares must've felt burning already, a small outlet borne of the need to be.

Though; Changmin's mind is forced to clear with every step he takes, the voices in his head all ordering things straight to counteract the effect of another god's power. 

_This is no time to succumb to anybody else_ , they spit in collective fury. 

By the time he's reached them he's already past the sluggishness effect of the divinity in the air.

"—'thena," he says, surprised that he isn't slurring that much, "the world watches." 

This seems to have an impact on him, on Athena, for when he turns to Changmin he's all wide eyes and clenched jaw.

"And who must you be, to interrupt me in carrying out my laws?" 

_Ah, damn the gods_. Changmin fingers at the collar of his shirt, finding the fabric suffocating as the place turns to hell with the way he's responded to the question by raising the temperature even more. 

Arachne screams in pain and Athena is forced to look over his shoulders. 

The monster is up in flames.

He looks back and something akin to confusion wrinkles his brow, though the way Athena says Changmin's name reveals nothing but the respect he's always treated him with. 

Although, he realizes what's happening perhaps a little bit too late.

"No!" Grey eyes ablaze, his pride always getting the better of him, "I don't need your help. I have to send her there, I will throw her down the pit myself if I have to!"

One look at the storms is enough for Changmin to remember that letting Athena's rage go unchecked is never a good choice. 

"You're drunk, Athena." Changmin hates taking the jobs he isn't given charge over but the way he lets his flames burn Arachne to ashes is as guilty a pleasure as he can allow himself to have. Something in the smoke rising makes him feel somewhat whole again.

Athena's seething when he looks at Changmin. "You dare—"

"You're drunk and you're alone. Think of these mortals witnessing your state. Aren't you supposed to be the protectress of this city?" Athena storms to argue and Dionysus reaches over to grab at his arm. A futile attempt in holding the goddess back, but at least he's tried. 

Truth be told, nobody's watching them. Dionysus is probably the cause of this, for the club's patrons are too focused in the…Dionysia at the dancefloor. The air is sweet with his blessing, thick and heavy while foreboding the threat of madness. Athena seems unaffected by it, going by the lack of frenzied movements in his person.

Changmin's never one to instill fear by symbols of power and he thinks Athena wouldn't really be affected much of it as he says, "Want me to call on Hera, then?" so he's halted by the view of Athena struck still.

"What do you mean call on Hera? You've found her?"

 _Ah_. Bass thumps at the back of Changmin's skull. Athena here must have only been recently acquainted with Dionysus, and had no information of the other gods' whereabouts.

Athena's eyes are a dimming storm receding back to calm browns.

Changmin forces to stem the flow of pity he feels. How terrible it is for the powerful to be left alone.

Dionysus disappears in a flash and goes back in another, though now he's standing beside Athena. "Where are the others?" he asks.

 _They're both younger than you._ Changmin's brain helpfully supplies. He doesn't know which incarnate's voice it is.

 _Technically_ , he counters.

"I'm still looking for them." 

They look at each other and Changmin feels dizzy at the suddenness of the action, coupled with a fresh wave of Dionysus' divinity through the air. Those, and the spiked nectar.

 _Been ages since you've last had a drink?_ "Shut up." Changmin wants his scarf back but his seat's too far away now.

Both their attentions are back to him now. "How many have you found?"

"Seven, I think." It takes Changmin a couple of moments to count them in his head, but it's taking so long he decides to just say all their names.

"There's me and Hera, Hades and Persephone—" at this, he sees Athena respond to, body's tense loosening at the sound of his old friend's name—"that seven includes both of you, by the way, and Apollo." 

Athena goes silent, but Changmin's spent ages with her so he knows he's just sorting through things in his mind. Most likely mapping out a path that'll lead him to victory, as always had been; Athena never acts without a concrete battleplan.

Dionysus seems to know exactly why Athena's staying still, for he walks away and goes back to his station behind the bar.

As he takes a bottle of liquor in his hands, the music somewhat lessens, bass now only thrumming through the soles of Changmin's shoes. 

How reckless must he be, now that he considers dancing freely in tune to the influence pushing at his defenses? 

Changmin has half a mind thinking of asking to stay for a few more minutes, eyeing the crowd of dancers gallivanting with mirth, pleased and pleasured and blissed and free. He turns to Athena, smile on his face words on his mouth tumbling tumbling out in his haste to be given permission, _Athena do you think I could stay here and and maybe dance with them a little and maybe never go bac—_

Only to be cut off, voices in his head disappointed at the sudden turn of submissiveness to the _want_ , forcing him to fully stop and take in the understanding look on Athena's face.

Changmin wants to apologize for things he can't even name.

Athena, going back and taking his scarf, looping it around his neck as he's forced to calm down and think, looking at Changmin in the eyes and saying, 

"Hestia, take me to them."


	2. δύο

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The inconceivable silence of everything is broken by the flight of a hundred ravens, flying away from their patron god now that the search for Artemis is over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **TRIGGER AND CONTENT WARNINGS:**  
>  — Mentions of Blood (nothing too descriptive), Major Character Injury
> 
> **ARTEMIS** – the Olympian goddess of hunting, the wilderness and wild animals. She was also the protectress of the girl child up to the age of marriage--her twin brother Apollon was similarly the protector of the boy child. Together the two gods were also bringers of sudden death and disease--Artemis targetted women and girls, Apollon men and boys.  
> – [Source.](https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Artemis.html)

On the court before him, Changmin feels déjà vu so extreme he turns lightheaded at the sensation of memories rushing back to his head.

They're inside one of the university's gymnasiums, Sunwoo—Athena's latest incarnate, who gave his name as Changmin led him back to the campus, unsurprised that they're currently residing in the same place—is standing beside him, watching the game happening on the court before them. 

And really, Changmin only stopped by here because he had to ask something from one of his friends, only to find out that Chan is a shared acquaintance. Sunwoo's mental capability seems to allow him to take in information much quicker than Changmin, who stood agape as Chan hugged Sunwoo, something about shared ideologies and beliefs tying them together.

So here they are, ushered inside the gymnasium and staying because a game is happening, and they really should be heading back but Changmin stops that thought because he's witnessing—

 _Flight_.

Hur Hyunjun rallies his teammates into air, the ball launched by deft fingers so in tune with the way his teammates run that it's no wonder he's named official setter despite his age.

But greater than that, much to Changmin's mind-numbing surprise yet again, is the spiker who hits the ball past the net.

It's Son Youngjae.

Son Youngjae, who Changmin remembers was hit in the back of the head hard enough so as to immediately lose consciousness. Son Youngjae, who Changmin recalls had been subject of Kevin's murderous intent, who surpasses the impossibility of what should have been his death.

 _Son Youngjae_ , his flight made possible by Hur Hyunjun, whose ankles are ghosted by wisps of _wings_.

"Sunwoo-yah," Changmin says low, not wanting to acknowledge both this hope and fear but is forced to do so anyway, "Sunwoo, we have—we need to go, please."

The lack of resistance as Changmin pulls at him until they're outside speaks of Sunwoo's quick mind, grasping the situation with ease. 

Changmin looks to him, unsure of what to do with the newest change yet again, and he frets enough that it must have worried Sunwoo to the point where he holds him steady by the shoulders. "Hestia," he says, "Changmin, one thing at a time."

It's embarrassing being perceived in such state but Changmin's just glad he's still breathing easy despite the near-panic. 

"Tell me, what's going on, can you do that? Can you, for me?" 

_Out of it! You don't have Kevin to heal you._

_A deep breath, first_ , "It's," _and another_ , "he's—I just," Sunwoo waits, patient as Changmin attempts to make his thoughts coherent as the steadying breaths he's taking now.

"That blonde guy, the one who spiked Hyunjun's set. Sunwoo," the gulp of air Changmin takes in burns his throat but it's imperative that Sunwoo knows of this, "he's supposed to be dead." 

It's apparent how it's the first time Sunwoo's heard of this issue, with how he stills upon hearing Changmin's explanation of the ordeal; the gradient of stormy greys show in his eyes, muddying the brown, the mask of his supposed mortality.

Like this it's how obvious he _loathes_ not knowing anything. 

Athena has probably considered taking Seoul under his care, has thought of being this city's protector much like how he had been for Athens. So this happening right underneath his nose, along with the threat of monsters rising again as Arachne had warned him with, is enough for Changmin to want to hold him back.

Although he knows that Athena's more rational than any of them, the wisest of the council and right hand of Zeus, so Changmin ignores the urge to hold onto his hand borne of the fear that Sunwoo will turn and exact judgement on Youngjae himself.

"Do you have plans, at least?"

"I wanted to take you to the others, maybe even Hera, but I can't deny that Apollo needs to be told of this first."

"What do you say then, if I go meet the others on my own so you'd have time to get Apollo?" 

He considers this, thinking if there would be consequences or dangers lurking if he lets Sunwoo be on his own. Changmin knows he's no fool, is aware that a large part of his own hesitance lies in his desire to witness the moments of his family being completed again, so he thinks of who to send Sunwoo to.

A memory strikes him, one of a king who, at the mere mention of Athena's name, had shown delight and happiness. 

"What do you think about visiting Persephone?" 

When Sunwoo's widening eyes were followed by a smile, Changmin lets out one of his own. "They're usually at the Underworld, but if you don't find them there you can just head straight to their home. It's just in the area, actually." 

Changmin holds Sunwoo's hand and calls on his fires, "A few blocks from Dionysus' bar is where they both live. Knock, though I'm not sure if they'll let you in." 

"It's fine," Sunwoo says, his hold tightening much more than Changmin's, "she'll probably be the one opening the door for me."

"Ah, Sunwoo. They're both kings now. This time." The fire leaving him to settle in Sunwoo is enough to guide him to them.

He hopes. "You'll feel warmer when you're near them."

Athena understands and picks it up fast, nodding along when Changmin apologizes, "Sorry for leaving you like this. We'll find each other again, and then I'd take you to meet everybody else."

When they each go their own ways—Changmin turning to take the street opposite Sunwoo at the intersection—it's surprisingly quiet in his head.

It's _..._ rare for him to not hear at least one of the voices of his past incarnates, as used to them as he had always been. Now the walk back home feels lonelier than how it usually is.

Changmin knows he's supposed to hurry, is wary that every second he spends faltering in his steps is another moment lost to fulfilling Kevin's justice. But what can he do, when in the first place he's never really expected Kevin to kill the thief? 

_Sure, it's what we used to do_ , Changmin turns at another bend and sighs at the sight of their apartment complex, _it's who we had been all those ages ago._

_It's how we delivered our own justices, how we acted and served and ruled above the world_ , it's a wonder how he's managed to take the stairs without missing a single step, is already just a couple of feet away from their unit's door, given as he's focused so on this thought process.

 _But, shouldn't we change?_ Changmin opens the door in time to see Kevin reach for the doorknob from the inside, his hair disheveled and clothes rumpled as if he's tripped in his haste. Eyes blown wide, hands shaking, he steadies himself by clutching Changmin's shoulders.

Eyes rimmed red, more of madness than tears, "Where is he?"

The hold on his shoulders tightens the same time Changmin opens his mouth only to stutter through his words. 

Kevin cuts him off.

"Changmin, I know he's here. I _feel_ him, sunlight still touches him, Changmin-ah, please tell me you know where he is," Kevin pleads, and if Changmin hadn't known what hurt and pain Kevin's going through he would have ran away for fear of the god's fury.

He remembers Hur Hyunjun back at the court, grace impeccable as he sets the ball in the air. He remembers the seamless teamwork, the gameplay that needs no verbal signal, the effortless way the ball gets past the blocks on the other side of the net.

But most of all, Changmin remembers Son Youngjae, and how in his flight faint ghosts of little wings appear on his ankles.

Gods. _How do_ _I tell him all of this?_

Changmin's never wanted this. Changmin's never thought it'd come to this but he kind of wishes he were someone else. His head still aches from all the day's events. Changmin's never wanted it to be like this. 

"Kevin-ah, please, have you gotten enough sleep?" 

Kevin looks back at him, the snap of his neck so abrupt Changmin feels the pain of the movement. The sun is rising above the dark seas of Kevin's eyebags, now his eyes are furious golds, and Changmin wonders if the madness from Dionysus' revel earlier is transferrable.

Past Kevin's shoulders is the view of their living room, floor splattered with paint and what looks to be spilt turpentine. But stood above the chaos of it all, the canvas on the easel displays a full spread of hyacinth blooms.

"I'm asking you, Changmin," Kevin says, and not without a great deal of strength does Changmin refuse to acknowledge the restraint in Kevin's voice, "where is he?"

"He's—," Changmin swallows, mouth drying up at the growing lividness Kevin displays. Just how is he supposed to give him the truth? "Keb, please—just, promise me first."

Low bass, from somewhere deeper than Kevin's throat, "I've no time for this, Changmin."

"Just promise me," he pushes on, aware that something as little as this request may change the tides and affect their fates, "promise to listen to me. We don't know what happened, please, just promise me this then we'll go."

They've only been together for mere months and Changmin prays it's enough for Kevin to trust him, enough so he'd believe Changmin over the rage of the sun inside him. 

He can't decide whether it's impatience or resolution that makes Kevin close his eyes as he takes deep breaths before saying, "Fine. I promise."

When he opens his eyes it's to focus on Changmin's. "I promise. _I swear on the River Sty_ —"

Changmin clamps a hand over Kevin's mouth, eyes wide at the supposed gravity of what would have happened if he hadn't prevented Kevin from doing that. 

"You didn't have to go that far, Keb. Just promise me, it's fine." Kevin grabs his wrist and takes his hand off his mouth. Changmin pretends he doesn't remember how he got his freckles there from Kevin's touch alone. "I trust you."

Kevin is yet to let go of his hold. "How much?" 

"Enough that I need take only your word for it. Nothing else." 

That seems to satisfy him. "Where is he."

Changmin waits for a few moments before starting, fearing that if he says it outright then it would be too sudden but if he waits for too long then everything will be damned, "At the gymnasium. He's still playing volleyball with his team.

"Kevin." He has to look at Kevin in the eyes for this one, gauging his reaction through the flare, "He's completely fine. Looks like he's unaffected, like _nothing_ happened."

Kevin shoulders past him and heads for the open door, not even bothering to get a scarf or anything to protect himself against the October chill. Though, Changmin supposes, Kevin doesn't really need anything like that when he's the literal sun.

And they soon arrive, with university just blocks and streets away from their flat. They cut through paths, from the gates through colleges through fields, Kevin entering the Arts Department buildings so he could shorten the distance they walk through. Changmin's forced to catch up to him, now and then jogging a little just so he could match Kevin's pace.

Walking to the direction of the gymnasium, Kevin doesn't care for the posts warning about walking on the fields, about trampling on the carefully-grown grass carpets meant only for the varsity players' sports-shoe-clad feet. He's relentless, and a little too frightening to reprimand so Changmin just settles on watching his step and blessing the plants he steps on and kills with his haste.

Changmin doesn't really know how they'll approach Youngjae, how they should go with this whole issue when he knows Kevin's just fuming with the desire to just attempt killing Youngjae again.

He isn't sure if it will work a second time though, given as the Fates seems to favor Youngjae. This act of retribution is one that's meant to punish grave crimes, Kevin—no, _Apollo_ delivering his justice with his own bow and arrow.

This is what had killed monsters before, what had guided Paris to kill Achilles, mightiest hero of his time as he was.

And, Changmin looks up from where he's focused in following Kevin's tracks only to see Youngjae and somebody else, talking to each other at the edge of the field. 

They're under the shade of a great tree, but Changmin can see both of them just fine, though Youngjae's blocking the other so Changmin can't tell who it is. They look to be talking quite seriously, but Youngjae's looking around frantically. _So he must already know_. 

Kevin's steps grow farther apart, stride lengthening and approaching where Youngjae is in just a short while. Changmin has to hold onto his hand right as he spits out, " _You_."

Youngjae turns away from whoever he's talking to and faces them both, expression calm and blank.

Changmin knows this one's a mask, is aware of what it hides underneath, as he'd seen Youngjae school his expression in just a blink. It shows in his eyes, anyway; he's nervous and maybe afraid but is trying to look like he isn't. 

Though, Changmin can't understand the bravado lining his lips as he smiles.

At the sight of it, Kevin's hands turn white-hot in a flash, a midday sun burning scorching searing _burning_ but Changmin's got no choice but to continue holding on. "Kevin, ask him, anything please just—don't go about killing him again."

Youngjae's still just looking at Kevin, gaze unflinching even after those words, even as Changmin sees him eyeing Kevin's hand. So he sees through the veil? And he isn't dead? _There's got to be more to this_. 

"Ric-ah?" comes clear from someone behind Youngjae. He peeks out from behind Youngjae and in the revelation of who it is Changmin doesn't know why he's growing wary of the sharp feline eyes. 

It's the setter of their university's volleyball team, Hur Hyunjun.

" _This is Hyunjun_ –" Chan had said, his smile bright in Changmin's memory–" _or Hwall, as he likes to be called sometimes. He's our official setter_." 

Hwall. _Bow_.

Changmin recalls precision, accuracy, flawless arrow-point markings. Merciless exactness on the court. A player, a hunter, his opponents on the other side of the court the hunted. 

"Kevin," Changmin starts, cautious as he draws out the call of the other's name, afraid that if beset by any other sound then the sun may literally burst above them. Changmin will not take the chance to be the cause of the world's burn. "Kevin, slow down, will you?"

But really, Changmin alone could never stand in the sun's path. How could he have hoped to calm Kevin in his anger? He's no one in Kevin's life now; what affections he may have received as Hestia from Apollo before is now lost, those feelings watered down through all the lifetimes they didn't get to spend together.

Youngjae, Fates bless his courage and will, remains where he is, undaunted by the glow that radiates from Kevin, ultraviolet and so so _potent_ it makes the hairs on Changmin's arms rise up. Everything's arid and there's a ring of dried grass around where they're stood, the brittle weaknesses scattering in the dry wind that passes through.

"It isn't yours." 

Youngjae is made of conviction. Changmin wavers at the truth spilling out with those words. 

He looks back to Hyunjun, and Changmin sees the way Kevin tenses at what Youngjae implies when he continues, "It isn't yours, so you shouldn't be the one keeping it."

"You stole from me, to give it to him?"

In a flash of heat Kevin's hands are free from Changmin's restraint, body turning positioned to accommodate the weapon already in his hands before Changmin could even blink. His everything is flexing, body tensed taut as the bowstring he's drawing back. Changmin can't bring himself to speak. 

Kevin's bow is a legend of Death, his arrow pointed directly at Youngjae's throat. At such close distance, Changmin has every reason to fear that the arrow will pierce through flesh and bone and come out the other side. 

Iron through calcium through iron again, in this precise order. 

"Tell me, _thief_ ," Kevin is snarling through the word, and Changmin's helplessness must be evident in the way he shakes at the anger not even directed at him, "Who's he to you, who's this, this that you've stolen the moon for?"

Changmin turns and his knees buckle at the utter surety blazing through Youngjae's eyes. "Oh, you'd want to hear the answer to that, wouldn't you?" 

Kevin pulls at his bow even more, every centimeter he adds to its tension making the string creak Changmin fears it'd break and snap at his fingers instead.

This frenzy, this mad absolution of justice he sees in Kevin's eyes is what makes him decide right then and there. 

Changmin retracts his hand from where it's now just about to hold Kevin back by the shoulder, walking past him calmly and reigning in all the heat trying to escape from him. 

Changmin is never Kevin, even as it's unlike him to side with those at fault. Kevin, Changmin thinks, is being unreasonable right now, although he understands that this must just be from how distraught he is. There are signs of Kevin's exhaustion clear even through his anger, some visible while others show more through the shaking of his voice, and Changmin is close to pitying him. 

"Kevin, put it down."

He positions himself to stand in front of Youngjae. 

The line of the arrow wavers a little as its archer processes the sight before him. "Changmin?" Hurt evident in the flashing of his eyes, a flush of creeping bewilderment showing even through the skin paled by lack of sleep.

"I tell you to listen, _you promised me that you would, Kevin_ , and you load your bow. Where's the sense in that?" Then, even without turning to Youngjae, voice lower, "Explain yourself. I know there's a reason for all of this. Speak, you have me to stave off Death." 

Kevin halts at the reminder of his promise, arms losing their tension and his muscles softening right before Changmin. He takes one look at Youngjae and focuses back on Changmin, expression seemingly calmer than what it had been moments prior.

But Kevin is never one to back down from anything; it's the sun in him that's made it to be so. He blinks once and rights his arrow.

"If you side with the thief, _Hestia_ , then I am obligated to include you in the punishment of whatever farce this is you're showing me." 

He steps closer. _So all those months together and still no trust, then._

Fires aren't anything compared to the sun but Changmin knows he burns just as bright. So, through gritted teeth, he lets out a fierceness he's repressed through all the ages and walks. 

Changmin finds himself steady and unwavering for every step he takes closer to Kevin's arrow.

The arrowtip presses flush against the center of his throat. It's already digging through his skin, but Changmin pushes closer until he can _feel_ it, until an itch on his skin reveals that something's trickling down from the shallow wound. 

" _Then do it._ "

Widening eyes and heavy breathing, Kevin's arms are trembling at the effort of staying his hand. What sight must Changmin be, what imagery is he making that it's elicit such reaction from Kevin? _What do I look like in your eyes?_

Kevin's struck still. Changmin recognizes this expression from all the days and nights they've spent together. The look of an inspirited artist. 

Changmin, despite in disbelief of his own thoughts' absurdities, remembers the completed artwork on the canvas back home, wondering if Kevin would _want_ to paint him like this.

_Why would you paint hyacinths if you didn't like the reminder of pain?_

They stay like this for a breathless measure of moments, seconds infinite as they both wait for the other to give in and back down. 

The world is stilled around them, not even the winds making the trees' leaves flutter a sigh, and Changmin's eye twitches right before Kevin looks away. 

He's about to smile, rejoiced at the sure surrender in the act of Kevin shying away from him; but then—

But then. 

Kevin's not looking at Changmin anymore but it does not look like he's given up. His eyes are fixed onto something behind Changmin. 

Kevin's focus has just turned elsewhere.

"Put it down." 

Something is glowing silver behind Changmin and the shine is unmistakable. _Moonbeams_.

A faint echo of hunting horns through the air, a forest awakening, a hunt being called to existence. " _Put it down!_ " 

Changmin turns—never mind the arrow scratching his neck, never mind being wounded—just in time to see Hyunjun stalk off from behind the shield of Youngjae's back, clearing himself of any obstruction as his back curves, the line of his body an exact mirror of Kevin's.

Silver against pale skin, slim fingers tight around a feathered arrowtail— _Is this why you play the way you do?—_ the slant of his eyes every bit that of a focusing hunter's. Changmin's headache returns, with the recollection of everything that's happened all in one day.

Kevin's arrow shifts from Changmin to Hyunjun. Gold to silver, glare to glare, and Changmin's wrist itches at the memory of sunflares. 

"And who are you?" 

_Is it really too much to hope for, bringing the council back together?_ Changmin longs to speak out, to spill all of the truths he's been keeping locked all this time, but he understands that it isn't his role to play. It's a funny trick of Fate to have the twins meet like this, arrow facing arrow, one blinded by justified wrath and the other with the fury of a protectress. _Will we ever be whole again?_

Hyunjun angles his head and shifts his body, the tension in his limbs so apparent Changmin starts feeling fire in his very sinews. A hunter in every sense, he stays quiet and focused, even going so far as to lowering his voice. But even so, they all hear the snarl from his throat, the fierceness that comes along with his title as the goddess protectress of the wild and weak.

"Someone you should be very afraid of."

_How could Kevin still not know?_

Kevin's mouth sets into a thin line, eyes uncaring and golden. 

This is fury, and through the eyes of Hestia's numerous incarnations Changmin can see how his face hasn't really changed through the lifetimes; It's still the same furrow between his eyebrows, the same sweep of his hair falling on his forehead just short of obscuring the view of his eyes, the same coldness in the purse of his lips, the same quiet lividity in the hardened set of his jaw. Changmin realizes that this isn't just Kevin now.

This is all of him, _all of the god_ _he is_. Hyunjun has just challenged Apollo himself.

There's a rustle through the wind. A flock of ravens comes perching on the trees above them, bodies all sleek tar underneath the midday sun that shines only upon the area they're all in. But there's a whistle through their high crows, piercing even through the strain of the moment; The hunter calling his signal, the chase truly starting.

An arrow is let loose, a gold streak whizzing past them, and Changmin's line of sight follows it to where he's sure it's set to kill Hyunjun.

Only. 

_Only;_

Hyunjun cocks his head to the side, expression calm even as the arrow shaves the side of his head, the top of his left ear grazed wounded by the tip. There's a line carved unto the clean cut of his hair, the arrow tattooing its own path on Hyunjun by wounding his scalp, but if he's bothered he doesn't show any sign of it. 

Or more likely it isn't all that noticed, for the sight of Hyunjun letting his own arrow fly is a thing only registered by Changmin in his peripheral view, him instead choosing to focus on the blood that blooms on the opening wound.

Hyunjun's wound is spitting out drops of ichor.

Kevin has made no sound so Changmin assumes he must have avoided the attack too. What guilt that should've eaten at him for disregarding the other's well-being like this is lost, misplaced at the discovery Changmin attempts to take in the reality of.

And this, a convenient time for the tension to thicken still, is when Youngjae chooses to speak up.

"It was never yours. I know, though by then I wasn't fully-aware just why," he says from behind Changmin, his voice not colored by anything other than honesty. 

Kevin, not even bothered by the arrow protruding from the tree bark behind him just mere centimeters away from his own neck, turns his gaze to Youngjae, deadly in the thinning slits of his eyes.

"You're saying this now, but why aren't you dead? How did you survive that back at the game?"

 _Gods, has he always been this stupid_ , Changmin hears Youngjae mutter behind him, annoyance at the situation clear. 

"No wonder why I've successfully stolen from you for yet another time. You really should start paying more attention to everything else, Apollo." 

The way he says Kevin's name is a little too close to mockery for Kevin to not notice, and, as predicted, it is with unfiltered malice that Kevin seethes his own realization out, " _Hermes_."

Youngjae sneers and it makes him look like he's aged suddenly, taking on all the years of his godhood. "Took ages, didn't you?"

Kevin lowers his bow and risks a look behind him, to where a silver arrow is protruding just a couple inches from his neck. He seems to have realized the truth as the sun casts the silver arrow shining, and when he turns his head to where Hyunjun is his bow disappears from his hands.

They all look to, but Hyunjun is still firm in his stance, bow loaded with yet another arrow and pointed at Kevin as his eyes hold fury in them.

Changmin feels the charge in the air, an eclipse set to happen right before his eyes, the world about to be thrown in complete darkness at the threat of two heavenly bodies colliding. 

There's a tint in the air, a pressure Changmin feels weighing down on his shoulders, an eclipse, a faint rumble through the earth beneath his feet. 

_What would happen if the twin gods are found together?_

_Changmin, what was it Kevin told you?_

" _The Fates made sure to keep us separated_ ," was what Kevin had said, Changmin. " _We could never be constantly at the same place, at the same time then_."

" _What if we were found by giants together, or Fates forbid, reborn titans? What then?_ "

An endless void in the skies. The world thrown into darkness. The sun and the moon gone as they're equal in power so nobody would win in a fight between the twins. Both the gods' greatest enemies rising again in their absence, Python and Actaeon and all of their foes celebrating the apparent absence of the world's lights, both their sanctuaries overran by filth and disgraces. 

Oracles at Delphi and the sun left without their god. The forests and the wild left unchecked.

_"You'd be slain together."_

He sends a silent prayer, one of hopeful forgiveness at the action he's decided to do. It isn't his decision, isn't his mercy to give, and he knows, he's aware, and it isn't like Changmin wants to see hopelessness color Kevin's features again. But it _must_ be done.

Which is why he focuses on the task he's taken upon himself, hoping that by the end of this he won't spend all of his remaining days being detested by the sun. 

In one swift motion, he turns and grabs Youngjae's still clenched fists, aware of what he's holding inside them. There's a coldness against his skin, from where he's encaged it with his own palms, and Changmin reminds himself of all the why's he's reasoned out. 

Marching up to where Hyunjun is, Changmin doesn't dare look over his shoulders for fear of faltering at the sight of Kevin.

But, in his haste, he does not notice Youngjae coming up from behind him, reaching for his arm and effectively stopping him. Changmin trips and fights the gravity of his stumbling, the flailing of his arms saving him. 

His hand opens loose, and the bracelet is thrown to the air.

Time slows down as if by mercy to Changmin's mistake, and the bracelet's drop is an arc in the air, the endpoint of its path is where it settles atop Hyunjun's hair.

The time returns to its pace but the four of them are still stuck frozen. Even Hyunjun is surprised, alarmed at the sudden interruption of his focus, startled so at the happenstance his hold on his bow shifts slightly. The arrowhead dips downward, not threatening enough now that it's not focused at any of them. The lowering of his weapon seems to stun even Hyunjun.

And, as the remaining three look on, it happens. 

The bracelet unclasps, the stars in its chain breaking off the link until they've scattered all over atop Hyunjun's hair. Though strewn, they form a loose circlet, pinprick stars in the night of his hair, and Changmin sees the glow it grants him. 

For truly, the divine are divine, and nothing had ever been a more breathtaking sight than this that Hyunjun is. 

He glows silver even underneath the sun, directly contrasting the influence of his twin, and the bow in his hands is of white tree-bark now clearly inlaid with silver. Hyunjun is all phases of the moon with the light of his skin and the dark of his eyes, as much heavenly body as Apollo is as he embodies the sun. His arms are circled with bands of gold, and Changmin remembers the sacred deer the goddess had always treasured.

Even Youngjae is still as he looks on, standing and stuck staring at what's happening.

The glow starts to intensify, and even without looking Changmin knows that it's dawning upon Kevin. 

A realization slow and subtle as the moonrise, Changmin's watching Kevin watching Hyunjun take on more light by the second, until his body is almost too bright to look at; pearl of the heavens, muse of all starving poets, loved by the sleepless, Selene's former godhood, orchestrator of the tides' moving. 

The moon.

 _Artemis_. 

The moon indeed, and in all its glory, bright through anything dull and dark. 

The moon, the shine of Hyunjun's skin mirroring the phase of a full one, but then he starts to fade at the edges, _What comes next after the full moon_ , and although Changmin isn't held back by Youngjae he still stays rooted in his place. 

"' _Hyunjun-ah_ ," faint through the static Changmin hears. The sight of Youngjae reaching to touch is vaguely registered in the chaos of everything.

The moon in all its glory. _What comes next after the full moon?_

Youngjae takes hold of an outstretched hand. Kevin reaches out a step too late, the cry from his mouth lost in the rustlings of thev ravens all around them.

"— _temis?_ " but Changmin knows Kevin isn't heard.

Hyunjun grabs on Youngjae's outstretched hand and stays his hold, both of them stuck staring but it's only Youngjae that's got this determined look in his eyes. He's eyeing Hyunjun, seemingly taking note of all the changes happening to him.

Though Hyunjun too, and he looks to be surprised at the glow he's emitting. After spending a few quiet moments mapping out the veins on his arms that now glow silver, he looks around as the wind rises. 

The sudden gale makes him turn his head to where both Changmin and Kevin are, and underneath the wild dance of his hair his eyes silver over in the realization that it's his twin that's reaching out, that it's Apollo braving the wind just to reach him.

Hyunjun's teared up, crying now, moonbeams from his eyes trickling argentine down his cheeks. His body turns away from Youngjae, reaching out and hand almost separating from his friend, continuing to brighten up even as Kevin unknowingly makes the sun shine even louder too.

All it takes is now a step more, half a meter more, anything more to reach and for the twins to be together once again after a lifetime of isolation for each. _The sun need not be alone in the skies_. Changmin prays and prays and _prays_ for the Fates to give Kevin just this, swearing that he'll go to war and battle anybody who rises with the purpose of threatening the twins, is a breath away from speaking the River Styx's name just to seal it all, but…

Silver overpowers gold. The sunshine's weaker now, strength diminishing as Hyunjun continues to lustre even more, and Youngjae's still holding on to him but Kevin's nowhere near his missing half and—

One breathless second passes and Hyunjun's eyes turn fully-silver. 

Light glares just once more and 

— _what cruelty_.

Both Hyunjun and Youngjae disappear in a flash.

The inconceivable silence of everything is broken by the flight of a hundred ravens, flying away from their patron god now that the search for Artemis is over. 

_Over_.

And even in pain Kevin still is the sun, but the way he sinks to his knees, the parting of his lips through the quiet scream, the way he bends over as he shakes through his disbelieving muted sobs—these speak of his pain more than any loud words could ever hope to express.

Everything gets awash with harsh sunlight sunburst but Kevin lets the world be. Never mind the world suffering, never mind everything drying up underneath the sudden shock of ultraviolet, _never mind_.

Changmin hasn't the heart and will to attempt calming Kevin down, not when he knows just how much this hurts him.

There's only gold running in his veins now, moonlight taken from his charge so he glows only with the sun. The withdrawal of partial divinity must hurt, must make his insides blaze with molten metal burn, but Changmin knows it isn't what pains Kevin most. 

It's the realization that he'd been slow at seeing, the idea that he's a moment too late, a step a reach a second too far away from getting to his twin once again.

Kevin is still knelt, though the heaving of his body goes progressively harder as time stretches on. What can Changmin do? This is his doing, Artemis disappearing is his fault and guilt and burden, and much as he wants to he can't just ignore that Kevin being hurt like this is all on him.

Changmin knows he can't possibly do anything that could be of help any more, but he summons all the warmth he can and takes Kevin's shaking body in his arms, fingers finding cold skin and mapping against its surface what he desperately wishes is comfort.

Kevin's body gives way and Changmin catches him, body unsurprisingly light. 

Changmin pretends he doesn't feel relieved at the way Kevin still lets him touch, at how the other gives in to exhaustion and leans to him for support, at how his heat dissolves into gentle warmth and turns everything else somber now that the day saps all of his strength away.

He finds it ironic, how a week ago it's Kevin that's carried him back home just like this, the sun shining only upon them while the rest of the world bathes in gloom.

They make their way back to their flat, people stopping to look at them and some even offering to maybe call an ambulance or help carry Kevin. Changmin rejects all offers with a small smile and focuses on taking one step at a time, his hand around Kevin's waist. The arm around his shoulders and the quiet breaths fanning from Kevin is all the comfort he can stomach to take, this reminder that Kevin still somehow accepts him, even if it's only his help to have both of them reach home.

Though opening the door proves quite a task when he's already struggling with holding Kevin up, Changmin manages it by himself and takes careful steps so as to not disturb Kevin, who's now almost passed-out due to the sheer exhaustion from this day alone.

Changmin knows he hasn't slept the day before, knows that Kevin is this tired because while Changmin's at the bar he's probably painted in what free time is given to him. But even while subject to the other's weight Changmin doesn't, couldn't even think of seeing this as a burden.

The hallway is littered with pairs of shoes thrown around, _must be from Kevin's haste earlier_. Changmin takes note of the mess but steps over them, determined to at least make Kevin rest on his bed before fixing everything.

He ignores the splatter of paints on the living room, doesn't look at the canvas facing him and baring a love Apollo still laments over. 

Changmin lays Kevin on his bed and almost feels him for temperature, was just about to put his palm against the other's forehead but he remembers that they aren't really normal, are they? So he resorts to turning the air conditioning on and not covering Kevin with his blanket, reasoning that he should be cooled down for some hours. 

Now going back to the living room, he sees the extent of what must have been Kevin's anger earlier.

There are cans of acrylics and oil paints turned over, drying up in the hours that they've been left in the open. Changmin doesn't think of the cost of everything; art _is_ Kevin as he presides over it and the Muses and all of its beauty. He simply needs to will the supplies to appear beside him, and they will. 

No, this is a question of Kevin's sudden rage, explosive as the splash of red against the carpet. "He must have been holding a can then dropped it," Changmin mumbles to himself as he walks around.

He tries to restore everything back to being pristine and clean, fixing shattered glass planters and using divinity to erase paint off of everything. 

Standing up from where he's knelt down to inspect the carpet, Changmin notices the easel standing in the center of the living room. There are no stray drops on the stand, no splatter of anything that might dirty the structure as was how it had been for everything else surrounding it.

This has him looking at the full spread of hyacinths on the canvas mounted against its frame, at the violets of the petals backdropped by yellow and the evident strokes all over the surface of it. Changmin can feel the love, the longing, the regret still lingering. It makes him feel dirty, looking upon such open display of Kevin's emotions. 

So he looks away, not able to bear the thought of being a voyeur at this when today he's hurt Kevin so. 

He pads back to the room, back to where Kevin's probably cried in his sleep too seeing as how there are tear tracks just drying up against his skin. Changmin wants to reach out, wants to comfort and love and stay, most of all apologize, but he isn't so sure if he's still allowed to do any of those things.

So Changmin gets up from where he's almost sat on the floor next to the bed, didn't even realize he's doing it had he not been conscious of standing up. 

He lets his fingers brush against the sheets, so so so near to where Kevin's hand is lain open, _so close_ to holding him but hesitating to lest he's unforgiven and would just set another bout of rage started.

Trailing his hand close to Kevin's but not quite touching yet, Changmin turns to head out, deciding to just stay away for now and maybe look for another place to stay. Hera would let him, _should_ let him have another home to rest on after long days of continued search for the rest of the gods. Though, he's sure to miss this, miss _them_ , but he's resolved in the sudden decision he'll busy himself with.

It's when he's turned his back to Kevin that he feels it.

There's a grab on his hand, warming fingers softly wrapped around his wrist. 

"Changmin-ah, please," Kevin mumbles, groggy and unfocused still even as his hold on Changmin's wrist tightens, "Changmin." 

Changmin tears up at the feeling of it, of remembering how Kevin's left a mark on him too with the freckles on his wrist. He hurt him, had caused him a great deal of pain and ache, but how is it that even through all of that the sun still kisses Changmin, still values him enough much like when it's left sunspots on his skin as reminder of what _this_ is? 

He can't take this, can't receive whatever this is Kevin's trying to say. "Don't worry, Kev. I'll stay away, I won't bother you anymore, won't be near again.

"Sorry for everything, Kevin-ah." He kneels back down again, bowing his head so the tears won't show, so Kevin won't see and think he's just doing this for the sake of being forgiven and nothing else nothing _more_ , "I apologize for everything that's happened today, I really do. You don't have to forgive me, I don't deserve that much." 

Either Kevin doesn't acknowledge it or just chooses to ignore it for the sake of some peace of mind amidst the chaos; "Changmin-ah," he says instead, sitting up even though Changmin almost pushes him just so he'd stay down. 

"What are you saying?" 

"Well, I just," Changmin looks up, but not before wiping his tears first, "I'm moving." 

This is why Changmin chose to leave without having Kevin know of his plans. "Why? What for?" Now he's confused, and even as he has tears in his eyes he still chooses to wipe Changmin's off of his cheeks.

"I don't blame you for anything, Changmin-ah."

"Sure you do, you must. It's my fault." 

At that Kevin stops to look at him properly, like he's considering his verdict the same time he seeks to meet Changmin's eyes. It's hard work keeping his gaze steady when Changmin's view is getting blurred by a fresh wave of tears, and he feels so inadequate in the way it's Kevin who wipes the drops trickling down his cheek.

Kevin looks sideways, past Changmin's shoulders, and peers gentle through squinted eyes. This makes Changmin look back too, curious but hesitant to ask what it is that had captured Kevin's attention. 

And through the open door, Changmin gets rewarded with the partial view of the living room, cleaned and organized and mess-free. Nothing's amiss, nothing messy left behind as Changmin had double-checked everything before he could deem it good again. 

It's just that;

"Changmin-ah." 

He realizes what Kevin had been looking at. 

It's the proud way the painting of hyacinths show through the open door, facing both of them and reminding Changmin.

The violets backdropped with yellow. Warmth, caution, sunlight. _Young fires._

"I told you before." There's a furrow again between his eyebrows but it relaxes back to calm. 

Changmin doesn't want to believe, unwilling to take on what this truly is, afraid of everything the Fates may throw at his family. 

But how can he deny what's he's being forced to face, the sincerity in Kevin's words as he said nothing's on Changmin even as he's the one who made all of these happen; how can he choose to go blind, when he's shown warmth and what he hopes is the truth and _warmth still_ , this that makes him look back to Kevin right as he continues to say, 

"Changmin-ah, I told you. I'd hate to lose you too."


	3. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERA – the Olympian queen of the gods, and the goddess of marriage, women, the sky and the stars of heaven.  
> – [Source.](https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Hera.html)

The penthouse suite has a view that makes one look down on the spread of Central Seoul. If Changmin pretends enough it feels a little like he's back on Olympus.

"How's everybody?" cold even with what affection should have shown with the words' intent.

Changmin should have known just how aware _he_ is of everything that happens amongst them. So this summons shouldn't have surprised him at all, not when they've planned this whole search together, but Changmin still finds it in him to spemd effort in working up the courage to meet Younghoon's eyes.

 _Isn't it too cruel a duty to be alone while finding all of us again?_ "We number nine. That includes the both of us.

"Enrolling in Seoul was a good course of action, as was planned. There are five of us currently in the campus; Apollo's with me, Artemis and Hermes played together, and Athena's hiding off the radar."

Younghoon flicks his cigarette. Changmin allows him this and bites back the worry settling in his throat. 

"Though both Artemis and Hermes were gone in a flash, presumably transported to where their most sacred groves are. I have heard nothing from them since their disappearance from the campus. Apollo's distraught, of course, but at least the moon's stopped being his burden." 

_Kevin's more than just distraught_. A quick glance to the now-king of Olympus has Changmin realizing all that he has to know. _Hera has no time to dwell on that._

"Hm. Underworld's the same, I suppose?"

"They're both reaching out, though they admit to only seeing me as of late. Dionysus too was found—he's masked his revels behind club walls."

"Nine of us." At this, Changmin does not need to answer. Three is a sacred number to them; three beings comprising the Fates, three daughters of Rhea and three sons of Kronos, three parts of the world—the heavens, the seas, and the underworld—to rule over. There's something comforting in the balance of the number, a triangle of three equal sides providing equity, and in the reminder of it Changmin senses the change that's slow in its arrival.

All nine had been found in the same country. Is South Korea's influence blanketing the world now? Younghoon before him is sloe-eyed and has pillow lips, his features a conventional beauty standard to this country, and Changmin can find no trace of the goddess' foremost form. 

Gone was the warmth ever-present in Hera's visage, now replaced with stoic coldness making him look more statue than god. 

Though, Changmin supposes he should have expected that most of all.

"Wouldn't you want to prioritize finding him, Younghoon?" 

A cigarette drag, a slow puff of breath. Changmin hates how he finds nostalgic familiarity in the smoke that rises.

"What for? I already have nine of us. Three of three. We're the most sacred we'd ever be, the strongest in our balance is now. Why should I search for _him_?"

Hera is the youngest goddess among the first Olympians, and Changmin as Hestia, being the second eldest daughter, is close to pulling the age rank if only to berate Younghoon for his thoughts. 

He's cut, however, when Younghoon stands up to head towards the glass wall of his living room. The shine of the entire city's nightlife envelops him with a thousand stars, and like this Changmin can somehow imagine Olympus only having one ruling king.

 _But_ ; "You know as much as I do that that can never be. We have more to find if we hope to complete the Olympians before winter solstice."

There must have been something in his voice that's made Younghoon face him, and not for the first time tonight Changmin is surprised. Younghoon smiles warm now, though how that can be Changmin's uncertain, as the smile doesn't even reach his eyes.

"I'm unsure still, but I've had my eyes on someone for days now. If the gala next week turns out successful, maybe we'd number ten by the end of it."

"You're attending a gala?" He's never heard of this one before, but he supposes Younghoon too must have been busy.

"Changmin, you forget how known I am to this age's fashion industry."

"That's a faked identity, you literally just inserted yourself there out of nowhere, and technically it shouldn't even count."

Younghoon lets out a laugh that's more air than mirth. The way it dissolves into sudden nothingness reminds Changmin of the smoke from earlier. 

"No matter. But I stand by what I've said." 

And nothing comes after that. There's the dismissal Changmin's honestly waiting for. Both of them are restless with the change of tides, of change coming in cresting waves; Younghoon even more so, palpably perturbed by talks about his missing spouse. 

Changmin understands, and turns to head back home. 

Though, Younghoon's eyes take on a strange light, and it makes Changmin stay by the door as he's sure that there's still something more to be said. 

And he isn't proven wrong, not really, when Younghoon nears and surprises him yet again.

"If everything goes well," Younghoon helps him wrap the scarf around his neck, the loops of it warm even as Changmin doesn't draw heat from his divinity—Is it wrong of him to wish that everything's still as it had been before rebirth and new lifetimes and rebirth yet again?—

"It's probably Ares we're meeting next."

**Author's Note:**

> Gods and Goddesses:  
> – Dionysus (Haknyeon)  
> – Athena (Sunwoo)  
> – Hades (Juyeon)  
> – Persephone (Chanhee)  
> – Hermes (Eric)  
> – Hestia (Changmin)  
> – Apollo (Kevin)  
> – Artemis (Hyunjun)  
> – Hera (Younghoon)  
> – **X** (Hyunjae)  
> – **X** (Sangyeon)  
> – **X** (Jacob)
> 
>   
> ~the list of the gods is inspired by their genz videos  
> hi everyone!! it's been another month ahahhh sorry for the slow update it's all on college :'] anyways.
> 
> if youre still here reading, thank you so much for still supporting this series. we're nearing the end !!!! just a few more parts next so hopefully i finish this series before new year aaaaaa please leave kudos and comments theyre all that keep me going <3
> 
> [my twt!](https://mobile.twitter.com/jjukyus) [my curiouscat!](https://curiouscat.qa/kyuisms)


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